The "Brownies" of the Philippines.
How would you like it, not to have a Fourth of July celebration,
or a Christmas stocking, or a turkey on Thanksgiving-day? The
little children of the Philippines would be afraid of one of our
firecrackers--they would think it was another kind of "boom-boom"
that killed men. A life-sized turkey in the Philippines would
be a curiosity, the chickens and the horses and the people are
so small. The little boys and girls do not wear stockings, even
around Christmas-time, and Santa Claus would look in vain for any
chimneys over there. The candy, if the ants did not get at it first,
would melt and run down to the toes and heels of Christmas stockings
long before the little claimants were awake. Of course, they do not
have plum-puddings, pumpkin-pies, and apples. All the season round,
bananas take the place of apples, cherries, strawberries, and peaches;
and boiled rice is the only kind of pumpkin-pie they have.
The fathers and mothers of the little Brownie boys and girls are very
ignorant. Most of them can not even write their names, and if you
asked them when the family birthdays came they would have to go and
ask the padre. Once, when I was living at the convent, a girl-mother,
who had walked in from a town ten miles away, came up to register
the birth of a new baby in the padre's book. She stood before the
priest embarrassed, digging her brown toes into a big crack in the
floor. "At what time was the baby born?" was asked. "I do not know,"
she answered, "but it was about the time the chickens were awake."
It is a lucky baby that can get goat's milk to drink. Their mothers,
living for the most part on dried fish and rice, are never strong
enough to give them a good start in life. It is a common sight to see
the tiny litter decorated with bright bits of paper and a half-dozen
lighted candles, with its little, waxen image of a child, waiting
without the church door till the padre comes to say the funeral
services.
In that far-distant country but a small number of children ever
have worn pretty clothes--only a tiny shirt; and they are perfectly
contented, as the weather never gets uncomfortably cold. Their mothers
or their older sisters carry them by placing them astride the hip,
where they must cling tight with their little, fat, bare legs. They
are soon old enough to run around and play; not on the grass among
the trees, but in the dust out in the street. Their houses, built of
_nipa_ and bamboo, do not set back on a green lawn, but stand as near
to the hot, dusty street as possible. To get inside the houses, which
are built on posts, the babies have to scramble up a bamboo ladder,
where they might fall off and break their necks. At this age they have
learned to stuff themselves with rice until their little bodies look
as though they were about to burst. A stick of sugar-cane will taste
as good to them as our best peppermint or lemon candy. All the boys
learn to ride as soon as they learn how to walk. Saddles and bridles
are unnecessary, as they ride bareback, and guide the wiry Filipino
ponies with a halter made of rope. The carabao is a great friend
of Filipino boys and girls. He lets them pull themselves up by his
tail, and ride him into town--as many as can make room on his back,
allowing them to guide him by a rope run through his nose.
I do not think that many of the children can remember ever having
learned to swim. The mothers, when they take their washing to the
river, do not leave the little ones behind; and you can see their
glistening brown bodies almost any morning at the riverside among the
_nipa_, the young mothers beating clothes upon a rock, the carabaos
up to their noses in the water, chewing their cuds and dreaming happy
dreams. The boys can swim and dive like water-rats, and often remain
in the river all day long.
The girls, when about five years old look very bright. Their hair is
trimmed only in front (a good deal like a pony's), and their laughing
eyes are very brown and mischievous. Most of them only wear a single
ornament for a dress--a "Mother Hubbard" of cheap cotton print which
they can buy for two _pesetas_ at the _Chino_ store. The boys all
wear long trousers, and, at church or school, white linen coats,
with military collars, which they call "_Americanas_," The girls
do not wear hats. They save their "Dutchy" little bonnets, with the
red and yellow paper flowers, for the _fiesta_ days. They wear white
veils on Sundays when they go to mass. The boys' hats often have long
brims like those that we wear on the farm. They also have felt Tam
o'Shanter caps, which they affect with quite a rakish tilt.
Playthings are scarce in Filipinia. The boys and girls would be
delighted with a cheap toy cart or drum. The dolls are made of cotton
cloth, with painted cheeks, and beads for eyes, dressed up in scraps of
colored _piña_ cloth in imitation of fine _señoritas_. Kite-time and
the peg-top season come as in America. The Filipino kites are built
like butterflies or birds, and sometimes carry a long beak which is
of use in case of war. Kite-fighting is a favorite amusement in the
islands, where the native boys are expert in the art of making and
manipulating kites. Among the other games they play is one that an
American would recognize as "tip-cat," and another which would be more
difficult to recognize as football. This is played with a light ball
or woven framework of rattan. The ball is batted from one player to
another by the heel. The national pet is neither dog nor cat; it is
a chicken and the grown-up people think almost as much of this unique
pet as the children do.
Music comes natural to the Filipinos. Their instruments are violins,
guitars, and flutes. The boys make flutes of young bamboo-stalks
which are very accurate, and give out a peculiar mellow tone.
_Fiesta_-days and Sundays are the great events in Filipinia. On Sunday
morning the young girls, in their white veils and clean dresses, go
to mass, and, making the sign of the cross before the church, kneel
down upon the bare tiles while the service is performed. The church
to them is the magnificent abode of saints and angels. The wax images
and altar paintings are the only things they have in art except the
cheap prints of the saints and Virgin, which they hang conspicuously
in their homes. _Pascua_, or Christmas week, is a great holiday, but
it is very different from the Christmas that we know. The children
going to the convent school are taught to sing the Spanish Christmas
carols, and on Christmas eve they go outdoors and sing them on the
streets in the bright starlight. Their voices, although untrained,
are very delicate and sweet. The native music, which they often sing,
like all the music of the southern isles, is very melancholy, often
rising to a hopeless wail. On the last day of school the padre will
distribute raisins, nuts, and figs, which are the only Christmas
presents that the boys and girls receive. At the parochial schools
they are taught to do their studying aloud, and always to commit the
text to memory. If memory should fail them in a crisis, they would
be extremely liable to have their ears pulled by the priest, or to be
made to kneel upon the floor with outstretched arms, thus making the
recitation somewhat of a tragedy; but there are also prizes for the
meritorious. One book includes the whole curriculum--religion, table
manners, grammar, "numbers," and geography--arranged in catechisms of
convenient length. The boys are separated from the girls in school
and church, and I have very seldom seen them play together in their
homes. During the long vacation they must spend most of their time at
work out in the rice-fields under the hot sun. So they would rather
go to school than have vacation.
With the new schools and the American schoolteachers a great
opportunity has come to the young people of the Philippines. New
books with beautiful illustrations have been introduced, new songs,
and a new way of studying. It would amuse you if you were to hear
them read. "I do not see the pretty bird" they would pronounce,
"Ee doa noat say day freety brud." The roll-call also sounds a
good deal different from that in our own schools, where we have our
Williams, Johns, and Henrys; but the Filipino names are very pretty
(mostly names of Spanish saints), Juan, Mariano, Maximo, Benito, and
Torribio for boys; Carnation, Bernarda, and Adela for the girls. The
boys especially are very bright, and they are learning rapidly,
not only grammar and arithmetic, but how to play baseball and tag
and other games that make the child-life of America so pleasant.